For many years now I have been following with great interest the progress and the works of Bruno Fael, a contemporary Italian painter among the most appreciated by international critics, and one of the most talented in giving shape and colour to strong emotions, in a fervent and spectacular artistic exploration that is deeply rooted in the times we live. His intense connection with current aesthetic developments lay his works open to multiple interpretations, not only in history and literature, but in every field of the modern and post-modern avant-garde. An important anthological exhibition dedicated to Fael will be held between February and March 2003 in Milan’s Palazzo delle Stelline (Sala del Collezionista), as if to consecrate the long route travelled by the artist and the many intellectuals who have stayed close to him over the years – painters, writers, musicians, singers and actors, with whom he has shared life’s more authentic moments and society’s more topical issues, and, above all, his passion for art and culture.

His interest for current events has always been strong, even more so today, so much so that the exhibition is entitled Fael Meets Cult Cinema. The show will delve into the history and customs of our times, through the visions transposed by the artist on huge canvasses, with his characteristic ability to synthesize in shapes and colours the events of an unveiling that emerge through spectres and irony. Like many other contemporary artists, Italians and Americans in particular, Fael has been inspired by some of the more remarkable films in the history of cinema. And so we have 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, Casablanca by Michael Curtiz, The Wizard of Oz by Victor Fleming, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Peter Hunt, Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin – all impressive paintings, full of energy, of great poetic and pictorial density. In producing this particular cycle of dozens of paintings, Bruno Fael has conserved what has always been his distinguishing style, derived from the post-cubist environment, that is never reductive but, if anything, expanded by the international style of cutting and assembling, to which he adds ornamental and decorative pop motifs. The fascinating truth is that Fael has found the means of expressing his art, which is vital and interior but also joyful and contagious, using all sorts of materials, from cork to leather, from polymers to cement - like the cement statues erected in Egypt and Kenya, which exemplified even more the multi-sided versatility of his works, by now appreciated in many countries of the world. This esteem has been testified by international critics such as Pierre Restany, who edited the artist’s monograph a few years ago, or his French colleague Frederic Altmann. Fael’s production, a good part of which will be presented in the large anthological exhibition at Palazzo delle Stelline, has already been displayed in more than 150 personal exhibitions world-wide, the most recent being at the Italian Consulate in Lugano, at the Sant’Apollonia Museum in Venice, at Ain Soukhna and the First Mall in Cairo and at the Gallery of Modern Art in Houston. Bruno Fael was born in Friuli in 1935, and has been living in Milan for many years, participating in the local art scene not only within the Brera circle but frequenting all the town’s more interesting locations and artists, from Dova to Kodra, even exhibiting at the classical venue of the Rotonda della Besana. Hardly a home-grown artist, Fael is more open to international developments and artistic experiences. This can be observed in his paintings, where colours and forms seem to germinate feverishly, budding and combining and building the great system that is his own personal style. Fael is the kind of artist that makes any approaching layperson fall in love with the world of art, which often appears so distant, precisely because it is elective and strongly selective. The Milan exhibition definitely represents the depth of this artist, highlighting his peculiarities and giving him historic perspective in a period of profound changes and of clashes between different cultures. Fael has become an artist who feels the Zeitgeist, depicting it in his masterpieces as not many others know how.
Translated by interpres sas